By JEAN-MARC BONMATINCONTRIBUTED TO THE GLOBE AND MAIL - SEPTEMBER 19, 2017

Dr. Jean-Marc Bonmatin is vice-chair of the international Task Force on Systemic Pesticides as(TFSP) and a research scientist at the French National Centre for Scientific Research

The science of pesticide development and regulation is complex, so let's put things simply: Human beings rely on food to survive. Much of that food comes from insect-pollinated plants. Modern agriculture relies on pesticides to grow that food.

New research that finds a possible link between fish farms and the spread of antibiotic resistance doesn’t surprise marine biologist Inka Milewski.

“Anytime you have animals grown in very concentrated conditions in these intensive livestock operations, whether it’s pigs or chickens, or in this case, fish, you’re going to have the potential for disease problems,” Milewski said in an interview Sunday from her home in the Miramichi in New Brunswick.

“The solution to a lot of these problems is to put antibiotics into the feed. And so it should come as no surprise to anyone that they have found antibiotic resistance associated with fish farms.”

The study released last week by Jing Wang of Dalian University of Technology in China concluded that genes for antibiotic resistance are getting into ocean sediments through fish food.

Millions of tonnes of fishmeal are used in fish farms every year, much of it sinking uneaten to the ocean floor, a news release on the study said.

The recent release of the documentary "Frankenskies" shows the effects of geoengineering on our weather, environment and health. It adds another dimension and critical factor in climate change. Nano-particles of aluminum, barium and strontium regularly sprayed to seed clouds are only part of the problem. They cause respiratory illness, increase alzheimer's* likely, pollute water and land and accelerate forest fires burning intensity.

This documentary (one and a half hrs.long) traces the sources, delivery and parties profiting from this globally and can be seen online and should be mandatory viewing for both decision-makers and the public.

According to Elana Freeland, author of "Chemtrails, HAARP and the Full Spectrum Dominance of Planet Earth" Geo-engineering and environmental warfare are prohibited by the ENMOD Convention at the UN in 1994".The underlying objective appears to be 'Whoever controls the weather, controls the world'.

We are all affected by this illegal activity. A moratorium on geo-engineering and inquiry into it is warranted now.

With multiple lawsuits before the courts, including one by Raincoast Conservation Foundation, and an anti-Trans Mountain provincial government taking power in British Columbia, Notley's audacious guarantee seems intemperate at best. However, if Notley's intention was to harden opposition in B.C. to the Kinder Morgan Trans Mountain expansion, she certainly accomplished that. Notley's inflammatory "mark my words" throwdown, coupled with her hectoring and lecturing that Kinder Morgan's oil sands pipeline and supertanker mega-project is in the best interests of British Columbians, will never win hearts or minds in B.C.

What Notley clearly does not understand is that many British Columbians consider the Salish Sea and its Southern Resident killer whales as priceless and irreplaceable; a worth immeasurable in monetary terms.

JULY 4, 2017

Hundreds of abandoned oil and gas wells in Alberta are leaking methane at rates high enough to pose local health and even explosion risks, Andrew Nikiforuk asserts in The Tyee, citing a previously unreleased study by the Alberta Energy Regulator.

“Based on the testing of just 338 wells,” Nikiforuk writes, “the study estimated that 17,000 out of 170,000 abandoned wells in rural Alberta are leaking methane, and that leaks at 3,400 wells could pose a risk to the public.” In addition to being toxic to people and flammable in sufficient concentration, methane is a greenhouse gas many times more potent than carbon dioxide on a short time horizon.

The Alberta regulator’s study closely examined 335 wells close to houses, airports, businesses, and other surface development. It “found that 36 were leaking methane,” Nikiforuk says. “Nine of those were leaking at a level that Alberta Health says poses a risk of neurological damage to nearby residents. Six wells that exceeded the emergency evacuation threshold of 10,000 ppm were outside buildings. Three other hazardous wells had ‘methane leakage inside buildings.’”